Agriculture News
Activism at the altar
meatingplace.com | Posted on July 4, 2016The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church was considering a resolution regarding consuming animal products from large-scale farms. The original recommendation asked the Presbyterian Mission Agency to “advocate wherever possible in favor of alternatives to CAFOs and IFAPS, commonly known as factory farms, and to advocate against measures that support industrialized animal farming” and encouraged “all levels of the denomination to purchase only meat that carries the minimal certification of “Certified Humane Raised & Handled.” Animal Ag Alliance submitted a letter to the moderator of the committee expressing concerns with demonizing farmers and farms based solely on size and emphasizing the entire animal agriculture community’s commitment to animal care. The updated version adds a line “recognizing that large scale farming is necessary for producing the large amount of food needed to sustain our growing population” and strikes the recommendation for all levels of the denomination to purchase “Certified Humane Raised & Handled” meat products. Perhaps most meaningfully, the new text asks the Church to “recognize that damage is done to the Body of Christ when we vilify those who work in good faith in an industry that undergirds most of modern life; encourage collaboration with the many individuals in the food industry who seek to engage food production in positive and creative ways.”
Tight Times Bring Changes for Farmers
Hoosier Ag Today | Posted on June 30, 2016This year has been one that has seen many farming operations making some significant changes due to tight profit margins. One Indiana grower who made major changes to his operations this year for financial reasons is Dan Gwin. Gwin farms near Linden in Montgomery County. Until this year, he has been growing primarily specialty crop corn that went to make tortilla shells and other food grade products. But declining specialty crop premiums prompted Dan to take the major step of switching crops, “Looking at what commercial corn was and having an ethanol plant in my back door, I felt it was more profitable for me to raise commercial corn and market it locally.” While many growers this year moved away from GMO hybrids to cut costs, Gwin moved to Biotech crops as a way to cut production costs, “With GMO corn I did not have as much herbicide management and it gave me more flexibility than my non-GMO white corn.” Along with his wife Donya Lester, Gwin did careful analysis before any decisions was made. “It takes a lot of courage to make big decisions,” he said.
Online cattle auction site closes after a few sessions
meatingplace.com | Posted on June 30, 2016Just a month after holding its first auction, the online Fed Cattle Exchange has ceased holding auctions. “Effective June 29th, 2016, the Fed Cattle Exchange website will not be hosting auctions for an indefinite period of time,” said a posyed notice. “We encountered some technology obstacles that were in part, due to our attempt to quickly address a long recognized need of cattle producers. We have also received valuable input from buyers, sellers, and registered sellers that have not yet sold through the Exchange, which we will be sorting through and implementing,” the website notice explained. “The Exchange will be back in a stronger and more reliable format in the future.” Producers had hoped the online auction would add liquidity to a diminished cash market for fed cattle, which has been cited by some as a reason for increased volatility in the cattle futures markets.
Sustainable beef? U.S. has most environmentally friendly livestock industry in the world
Beef | Posted on June 30, 2016Frank Mitloehner, an animal science and air quality specialist at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) will show you two pictures from either side of a California fence. There are 40 acres on one side occupied by a 3rd generation dairy with 1,000 cows. On the other are 40 acres occupied by a 5-year-old residential development with 1,000 homes. The residential development sued the dairy over environmental quality — and won. It didn’t matter that a subsequent comprehensive life-cycle assessment — an assessment of all environmental footprints — conducted by UC Davis researchers showed that converting farmland to residential land is 70 times more harmful to the environment. It mattered not that the U.S. has the most environmentally friendly livestock industry in the world, as measured with scientific fact by its carbon footprint.
$20,000 ag grant makes Montana man’s mobile shearing shed a reality
Agweek | Posted on June 30, 2016Mike Schuldt has been shearing sheep for 28 years, and a grant through the Growth Through Agriculture program last November made his vision of a mobile sheep shearing operation a reality. Governor Steve Bullock and the Agriculture Development Council announced twelve agricultural businesses and organizations were awarded a portion of the $290,000 in grants through the program, which was established by the legislature to strengthen and diversify Montana’s agricultural industry by developing new agricultural produces and processes. Schuldt Services was awarded a $20,000 grant for a mobile sheep shearing trailer. The funds have purchased a gooseneck trailer with materials to construct a modern shearing trailer and a hydraulic wood press.
107 Nobel laureates sign letter blasting Greenpeace over GMOs
The Washington Post | Posted on June 30, 2016More than 100 Nobel laureates have signed a letter urging Greenpeace to end its opposition to genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The letter asks Greenpeace to cease its efforts to block introduction of a genetically engineered strain of rice that supporters say could reduce Vitamin-A deficiencies causing blindness and death in children in the developing world.
One of the country's largest agricultural greenhouses locating in Ohio
Prairie Farmer | Posted on June 30, 2016Paul Mastronardi and Louie Chibante, principle owners of Golden Fresh Farms in Wapakoneta, have announced a $100 million capital investment over the first four phases, potentially expanding to more than 200 acres of greenhouses with a $250 million investment throughout an eight-phase build out. Phase One will start in the spring of 2016 with construction of a 20-acre (871,000 SF) greenhouse with a capital investment of $22.5 million. The greenhouse will produce locally grown vegetables throughout the winter months using high-pressure sodium lights. Phase One will bring 52 new full-time jobs with an annual payroll of $1.9 million.
Arkansas: New study to require drilling at hog farm
Arkansas online | Posted on June 30, 2016State-hired scientists continued to state that research shows no evidence that C&H Hog Farms is polluting its surrounding environment in the Buffalo River watershed, and the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality announced it would commission a study of the facility as requested by opponents of the hog farm. With permission from C&H ownership, the Department of Environmental Quality will contract with a new research team within the next 60 days to assess the clay liners on hog manure storage ponds at C&H in Mount Judea after opponents of the facility expressed concern they were leaking. The department set aside $50,000 for the study but expects to spend between $20,000 and $30,000 for it. The study will consist of drilling in a single spot on C&H grounds to extract samples. The money will come from environmental settlement funds received for water studies and will be used at the discretion of department Director Becky Keogh with permission from Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Keogh said Friday that the research would be conducted in an "open and transparent manner" to supplement and investigate existing research. The announcement by the department comes as C&H opponents question whether researchers hired by the state are biased and as C&H ownership questions whether volunteer researchers working with opponents of the hog farm are biased.
Genetic pesticide: Monsanto, startups seek alternatives to manage bugs and weeds
St Louis Post Dispatch | Posted on June 30, 2016If not treated, the invasive varroa mite will almost certainly show up in a honeybee hive, latching on to the pollinators, feeding off their internal fluids and threatening to weaken the colony to the point of collapse. Western bees never evolved defenses to the Asian parasite, brought to North America about 30 years ago. Many of the existing treatments are mite-targeting pesticides that can damage the bees or their honey. It’s a problem Monsanto scientists think they can help solve by tailoring a treatment with far more specificity than synthetic chemicals, one that uses the language of DNA to target genes unique to only the varroa mite. And the agriculture giant thinks it can do it by simply feeding the bees a sugar solution full of RNA, the molecule that transcribes DNA’s instructions. Monsanto has already signed up 2,500 colonies around the country for trials of its bee health product, which started this year. The tests could prove significant, not only for honeybees crucial for pollinating the food supply, but for a technology platform that has potential applications far beyond beekeeping. It isn’t alone. Startups with operations in the St. Louis region are looking at their own products using the technology, and other large agribusiness companies are racing to commercialize it. The mechanism, known as RNA interference or RNAi, has stoked excitement among researchers and industry since its discovery won two scientists a 2006 Nobel Prize.
Farmers are People too
Medium.com | Posted on June 30, 2016It’s a foregone conclusion amongst food and ag writers that there is something wrong with the way we grow food in America. Paging through the best-selling volumes by Michael Pollan, Mark Bittman, Dan Barber, and others will lead you to one conclusion; there’s a better way to farm out there, and they’ve found it. After you close the book/put down your NYTimes, you’re inevitably left to wonder, if these journalists and chefs found these solutions, farmers must be willfully ignoring them. Sure, these authors tell the farmers’ sad tale about the inheritance of industrial agriculture and the industries and policies that entrench it. But, we wonder, if farmers were smart enough, hard-working enough, and truly the environmentalists they claim to be, they should be putting away their John Deere tractors and their Monsanto seeds en masse to plant heirloom tomatoes alongside their grass-fed beef. Right? Reducing farmers and agribusiness to stooges and villains is a good way to sell books and documentaries, but it’s no part of a meaningful solution. If we want farmers to take our goals around ecology and sustainability seriously, we have to stop believing that they’re either holy or evil; they’re people, people who are more than their jobs.